The colonel returned in an hour's time. He appeared very much excited and very irresolute. Suddenly he stopped in front of Charras.
"I will wager you are hungry?" he said.
Charras merely shrugged his shoulders and answered—
"That is a singular question to put to me, surely?"
"Ah!" said the colonel, "we must not let anyone die of hunger, not even prisoners."
"Yes, it is better to fatten them up before you shoot them, is it not?" remarked Charras.
"Who is talking of shooting you? Come," exclaimed the colonel, opening a door, "breakfast."
A table was brought in, fully laid as on the stage. The colonel departed from his usual custom and breakfasted in his drawing-room instead of his dining-room—or, rather, he did not breakfast, for he did not sit down to the table. Charras roused Lothon, who was in a bad temper at being waked, specially since he did not know for what purpose he had been awakened. When he knew that it was for breakfast, he softened. They had just finished the cutlets when the door opened quickly and a man of about fifty dressed in uniform appeared.
"Pardon, colonel," he said, "but I am Lieutenant-Colonel Duriveau of the Engineers and second in command at the École polytechnique under the Empire.... I have been told that you are keeping two of my old boys prisoners, and have come to see if it is so."